Benefactive ditransitives in Dutch 209To sum up, there are several indications that verbs such as inschenken
‘pour’ and opscheppen ‘dish up, ladle out’ are perceived by speakers as
relevantly similar to verbs of giving rather than to ordinary verbs of crea-
tion/preparation or obtainment, and are treated accordingly. This semantic
similarity to more central classes of ditransitive verbs explains why in the
most restrictive varieties of Dutch these are the only verbs which can still
be used with ditransitive syntax to encode an event of recipient-
benefaction.
We conclude this subsection with an observation from Kirsner (1985:
251), cited approvingly in Schermer-Vermeer (1991: 220), inter alia, about
the construed example in (22).
(22) ??Voordat Jan thuiskwam had Ineke hem al een borrel ingeschonken.
‘Before John came home, Irene had already poured him a drink.’
According to Kirsner, the ditransitive clause in (22) is awkward because
John is not on the scene when the pouring occurs. This observation is in line
with our hypothesis that for the ditransitive to be possible in standard Neth-
erlandic Dutch, the preparatory act and the actual transfer must be contigu-
ous, if not simultaneous, subevents.
4.3.2. More tolerant varieties
In the more tolerant varieties of Dutch, including supraregional Belgian
Dutch, the ditransitive argument structure pattern can also be used to en-
code events of recipient-benefaction in which there is a looser bond be-
tween the two subevents. In contrast to the above instances with inschenken
‘pour’ and opscheppen ‘dish up, ladle out’, Belgian examples of the kind
illustrated in (23) (= example 11a above) and (24) denote situations in
which the preparatory action does not occur virtually simultaneously with
the envisaged transfer.
(23) Ik heb haar een doos noten gebracht en zij gaat mij nu een koek bakken.
<forum.tuinadvies.be/8_2641_Walnoten_of_okkernoten.htm>
‘I took her a box of nuts and now she is going to bake me a cake’
(24) Nu heb ik een verloopstekker gevonden bij m'n locale dealer, maar hij
heeft em zelf nodig en hij is te lui om er mij enen te bestellen.
[CONDIV_Usenet_B]